Critical Studies of the Asia-Pacific Series. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 214 pp. (Illustrations.) CA$105.00, cloth. ISBN 978-1-137-48824-4.
Regional security governance in Asia has become much more complex in recent years, since it involves both a growing variety of actors—state and non-state—and an increasing number of non-military and transnational threats to be managed. Zimmerman’s book covers both of these very salient themes in a singular effort.
The book explains how think tanks and their networks in Asia mobilize discourse to increase their influence despite being positioned at the margins of political power. The author focuses on the promotion of a “non-traditional security” (NTS) agenda by four networks: the ASEAN-Institutes of Strategic and International Studies (ASEAN-ISIS), the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP), the IISS-sponsored Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD), and the MacArthur Foundation Asia Security Initiative (ASI). Zimmerman argues that by controlling both how NTS is framed and the space in which this discourse is performed, these networks have been able to position themselves as “governance entrepreneurs.” The “NTS agenda” that they promote, detailed in chapter 3, not only calls for the securitization of a growing number of non-military and transnational issues, but also privileges solutions that amount to institutional change in regional security governance. These solutions include giving up strongly held norms that have structured regional security governance in Asia, strengthening the regional security architecture, and further developing inter-state cooperation on transboundary issues. The author claims that since formal regional institutions, in failing to cope with NTS issues, are increasingly perceived as ineffective, think tanks have become a credible alternative.
Zimmerman sets out to make three contributions. First, she claims to update and go beyond the existing literature on think tanks and their networks in Asia. Second, she adds discursive institutionalism (DI) to the repertoire of theoretical approaches used to study the influence of non-state actors on security governance (see chapter 2). Third, she undertakes a comparative evaluation of think tanks influence on policy in Asia, throughout chapters 4 to 7.
The author convincingly demonstrates that think tanks in Asia have promoted the NTS agenda, and the problem/solution pairing it entails more specifically, as a way to gain enough political influence to push for institutional change. The complex portrayal of NTS as referring simultaneously to a set of objective issues, a series of ideas about how regional security governance is managed, and a particular agenda promoted through discourse for strategic motives, is as rare as it is valuable. The book also provides a much-needed appraisal of the current level of political influence exerted by the well-established ASEAN-ISIS and CSCAP. It also introduces newer initiatives such as the SLD and the ASI, which have been increasingly influential and yet remain understudied. Overall, this serves as a noteworthy empirical contribution and allows for a better understanding of the complex web of interactions that characterizes the relationship between actors involved in the official regional process and members of epistemic networks in Asia. At the theoretical level, the author contributes to the diversification of theoretical approaches in Asia Pacific international relations (IR), adding to a still modest but promising branch of recent scholarly work that sheds light on the role of discourse in the social construction of reality. While the core of the argument is convincing and the contributions significant, the book may still encounter a few objections, as a number of caveats prevent it from realizing its ambitions fully.
The argument would have benefited from better clarifying the meaning of NTS. Its meaning fluctuates throughout the book, at times including initiatives pushed by think tanks that have very little to do with the management of non-military and transnational issues. Moreover, a number of methodological limitations may have resulted in overstating the actual level of success of think tanks in bringing about institutional change. The comparative evaluation suffers from permeability between case studies, thus causing redundancy. The same individuals are typically involved simultaneously in multiple networks, which makes it difficult to isolate each network’s contribution. Also, the implication that the NTS agenda runs counter to state sovereignty and must lead to the relinquishment of traditionally upheld diplomatic norms, such as non-interference and soft institutionalism, has not materialized in practice, despite the successful mainstreaming of NTS in the agenda of regional organizations. The development of NTS cooperation among states even serves as a way for them to collectively extend their control over their national borders. The state remains the main—if no longer the sole—provider of, and referent to, security in the region.
Finally, since the role of discourse as a vehicle for ideas is widely implicit in constructivist scholarship, there is undoubtedly worth in the author’s effort to make it explicit. However, limiting its added value to the role of conduit for other factors amounts to underestimating its own productive power, which is situated in its ability to shape actors’ understanding of the world, and the benefits that come from using discourse-based approaches in IR. Portraying DI as a mere bridge-building enterprise between constructivism and institutionalism is not only reductive, but makes it hard to understand what it brings to the table in comparison to the rich scholarship on norm entrepreneurship, diffusion, and localization in the context of international institutions, to which the author only refers partially.
These quibbles notwithstanding, this book provides a very useful portrayal of the space where regional security governance is defined, and of the discursive strategies used by think tanks to increase their influence. The critical distance shown by the author when addressing the way NTS is being framed and its effects on regional security governance is commendable. This book certainly contributes to highlighting the inherent potential of discourse-based work on security regionalism in Asia. Therefore, it should be read by anyone interested in the evolution of regional security governance in Asia and in the role of non-state actors in this process.
Stéphanie Martel
Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada
pp. 107-109